PROVO, Utah, Jan. 9, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — Provo Search and Rescue teams attempted to rescue a dog that had become stranded on a cliff in the mountains.
The skittish pup, whose name is Mary, did not like the idea of being carried to safety, but later decided to jump from the 50-foot ledge herself, and was not injured.
Mary, according to a news release from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, has now been reunited with her owner and is doing well.
Volunteer members of the Search and Rescue (SAR) team responded to the situation in the mountains east of 1500 North in Provo on Friday, the news release from UCSO said.
“The dog was reported to have been stranded on the cliff overnight, since Thursday,” the news release said. “One of the volunteers rappelled down to the dog. The dog, whose name is Mary, was on a narrow ledge at the top of a cliff with a drop of about 50 feet.
“The volunteer tried getting Mary close and gave her some food, but she was very nervous and would not do any more than take the food. The volunteer tried to take Mary by her collar, but she nipped at him. The volunteer was also concerned that Mary would jump if he got too close.”
As darkness came, SAR decided to leave some food and hand warmers to sit on with Mary and resume the rescue effort on Saturday. Sometime later, Friday night or Saturday morning, Mary jumped. She suffered some minor cuts to her paws but was otherwise uninjured, and was reunited with her owner.
“This dog had reportedly been abused by previous owners and was extremely skittish,” said SAR volunteer Shaun Roundy, who made the video.
“After slowly drawing it near with food and nearly getting a hold on its collar; it broke away, we never got another chance. It seemed quite ready to jump off the 50-foot cliff rather than let us get that close again.
“We fed it a package of jerky, a tin of sardines, and some granola bars, left a bag with hand warmers in to sit on. We were going to go back for the dog after avalanche training Saturday morning.”
Roundy said that SAR teams were then called to an avalanche above Sundance in which seven or eight people were thought to be buried, but it turned out to be less severe than first thought and nobody was buried.
“In the mean time, we heard that Mary made it off the cliff and back home on her own, somewhat bruised but alive and well,” he added.
